"We don't have far to go? To get here, we walked for a couple of hours. Won't this be the same?" Mark whispered.

Tate said, "This tunnel doesn't lead to Fawn's house. There's no need to whisper; no one will be here."

"How can you be sure? If the Queen had guards watching everything, there could be someone waiting for us." I was starting to worry, and the dark seemed scarier.

"You don't need to be afraid; this entrance is special. It was built by a faerie with a gift for protection. No one who intends harm can enter." Ash reached back for my hand, and I felt better.

"What was the faerie protecting?" Mark asked.

"His wife. He made this tunnel before the Queen started to limit travel."

"Now, he just stays in our world?" I asked.

"No, he died years ago," Tate sounded sad, and I wondered if they were friends. "He lived hundreds of years going between our worlds, but when he found his wife, he decided to stay in yours. He would come home only long enough to keep himself strong.

"When the Queen demanded that all entrances to the human world be closed, he stopped using it. He didn't want to get stuck and be separated from her."

"That's so sad. Is she still alive?" I asked.

"Yes, she is. I was glad to see her doing well but stayed away. I've never met her, but sometimes people who know about us can tell we're fae. I didn't know how she would feel seeing one of us. We don't have much of a choice now, though; it's the safest way for us to get back."

"I don't understand. How will we be able to get through if no one else can?" I ran into the back of Ash with a surprised grunt; I couldn't tell he'd stopped walking.

"We're here," he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

I wasn't sure where here was. We were still standing in the dark.

Tate answered my question. "We've gotten this far because we mean no harm. To go the rest of the way, his wife has to invite you, or you have to have been invited before."

I nodded, not that anyone could see me. "So Ash knows her, and after he gets in, he'll ask her to invite the rest of us?"

"No, I've never met her either. The two of you will go in and ask her to invite us."

"We know this faerie's wife?" Mark sounded as surprised as I felt.

Who did we know that could have been married to a faerie? Ash stepped to the side and moved behind Mark and me.

I felt in front of us blindly, and the dirt wall became a wooden door that swung open without me trying. I stood there looking at the room in front of me in total confusion. Mark grabbed my arm like he didn't want me going through by myself.

When he stepped up next to me and saw where we were, his mouth fell open, "What the hell?"

We'd hardly stepped into the room when we were attacked with hugs. First, the two of us were squeezed together in one big hug, and then we were pushed back to be inspected separately.

Bea put her hands on either side of my face and looked closely at what was left of the marks there; thankfully, there wasn't much. She shook her head and reached for Mark. His face was fine, but when she saw the almost healed bruise on his chest, she patted his arm gently and clucked her tongue.

"My poor babies. How did you two get so beat up?" She looked behind us at the three faeries waiting in the doorway. "Do you want to introduce me so I can invite them in, or are we closing the door?"

I turned to look behind me and saw them standing there, wings and all. Bea wasn't even a little surprised. Holy crap on a cracker! "You were married to a faerie!"

"Yes dear, Flint was a faerie. A beautiful one too," she smiled sweetly, and it was clear she wasn't looking at us anymore; she was remembering him.

I turned to Mark; he was still looking at her in shock. This was perfect! If Bea already knew about all of this, she could help me figure out how to hide everything from Mom.

I was so excited at the thought, I forgot about our friends still waiting in the tunnel. Thankfully, Mark had snapped out of it and was taking care of things.

"Bea, this is Ash, Jolie's boyfriend," Mark pointed to Ash and he dipped his head respectfully at Bea. She nodded at him but didn't say anything as Mark went on with his introductions, "This is Tate, my...umm, Ash's best friend."

Tate smirked and shook his head at the way Mark stumbled over what to call him, but he smiled and gave Bea a little bow. "I knew Flint when I was a child; he was a good man. I was sorry to hear of his passing."

Bea smiled, "Thank you." She stepped closer to him, "Tate? I remember that name. Your parents lived here, didn't they?"

"Yes, they did," he looked surprised.

"I knew them, they were friends. They used to talk about their warrior son, they missed you, but they were so proud of you."

Tate's eyes widened, and I saw tears forming. He blinked them away as Mark went to his side to take his hand. He shook his head and took a deep breath, "Thank you. It's been a long time since I've heard anyone speak of my parents."

Bea nodded as her eyes fell to their joined hands, and she gave him a little smile before turning to Hedera. "And you dear, what's your name?"

She looked nervous, and Mark was focused on Tate, so I introduced her, "This is Hedera, she's a good friend of Tate's, and she wanted to come to live here with us." I beamed at her and she gave me a tight-lipped smile.

Bea greeted them, "I'm very glad to meet you all. Ash, Tate, and Hedera, please come in, you're welcome in my home."

Hedera took her belt off and dropped it on the ground, kicking it away before they all stepped through, and Tate closed the door behind them. The door turned out to be a big bookcase. No wonder I'd never noticed it in Bea's basement.

I couldn't believe Bea, who I'd known my whole life, was married to a faerie. She was a part of this whole magical world I never even knew about.

She turned to me as if she could sense my thoughts, "I know, it's a lot, isn't it? I remember when I found out faeries and magic are real, what a lovely surprise that was. I'll have to tell you about it later. After you explain how you could disappear for days and scare your Mother like this."

I looked down and took a deep breath. "Maybe you could help me with that. I don't really know what to tell her about all of this, or how to explain being gone so long. When did she realize we were missing?"

"She came home Saturday night when she couldn't get ahold of either of you on the phone. It's very late Sunday now if you didn't know, the time thing is hard to get used to. As far as explaining it to her, I'd go with the truth." She walked over to the stairs and yelled, "Emily! They're here! You were right!"

"Mom's here!" I looked at the three of us that were still standing around with wings and waved my arms at them, "Do something!"

"No! Wait." Bea shook her head at me, "That was awfully rude, dear. You shouldn't yell at your friends like that. Besides, it's been years since we've seen faeries. Let your Mom get down the steps before they go changing things. That's if you all don't mind waiting?"

They all shook their heads and Ash looked at me with surprise.

"Wait, what was Mom right about?"

Before Bea could answer, I heard Mom crashing down the stairs so fast I thought she might fall. Without pausing, she rushed off the bottom step and smashed into me, almost knocking me over.

"I was so worried! How could you do this to me? Why didn't you tell me your boyfriend's a faerie? I thought you left me!" She burst into tears, and I had no idea what to say. I just stood there hugging her back.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Sanders, it wasn't her fault. She didn't know anything. The Queen had her taken through the mist."

"The Queen?" She studied Ash in confusion, "Why would she..." She shook her head, "It's the middle of the night, you can explain later" she turned to Mark and pulled him in for a hug, "I'm just glad you're home. I thought you ran away from me too."

He cleared his throat and spoke quietly like a kid that knew they were about to get in trouble, "I know I said I'd call if anything was wrong, but I didn't know about any of this at first either. Jolie was gone and I went to get her back."

She leaned in and kissed his cheek, "Thank you." Then she smacked him on the arm, "The next time you tell me what's going on first. I was worried sick about you two!"

"Yes, ma'am," he smiled.

"Don't give me that ma'am business; manners won't fix this. You're explaining everything tomorrow."

"Mom! How did you know about all of this and never tell me?"

"There was no reason to tell you, Jo. We thought travel between the worlds was stopped, this was the only passage left open and no one knew about it. The only faerie you knew passed away when you were a toddler."

"Why were you here waiting for us then?" I asked.

She tilted her head and shrugged, "I just had a feeling when I met Ash. I knew there was something off about him."

"Mom!" I stopped her before she could start talking about his looks.

She rolled her eyes at me. "He just made me think of the faeries I'd seen years ago trying to blend in. I didn't think much of it because the passages were closed, but when I couldn't get in touch with you or Mark, I got worried.

"Then Clara said she hadn't seen you either," her voice broke, and I went over to hug her while she talked. "I came home and you two weren't here. When Clara said Ash was gone too, I came straight to Bea."

Bea laughed without humor, "She thought I was just going to let her wander through alone, without even knowing for sure if you could be there. There was no way I was going to let that happen. If you two hadn't come home by tomorrow, I would have gone through to look for you myself."

Mom looked shocked, "You didn't tell me that!"

"Well, I wasn't going to bring you with me, dear. If I left without you knowing, you'd be stuck here, in case the kids really had just run off somewhere for the weekend."

Mom's mouth fell open as she stared at Bea.

"Close your mouth Emily, you'll catch a fly."

Tate laughed out loud but cut it off quickly when Mom looked at him, "I'm Emily. I didn't catch your name."

"I'm Tate. It's wonderful to meet you," Tate bowed gracefully, and Mom looked flustered but pacified.

Bea put her arm around Mom, "Aren't they beautiful, Emily? Looking at them, it's almost like my Flint is here. Do you remember what he really looked like?"

"Of course, I do," Mom laughed. "Don't you remember the first time I saw him like this? That's a picture I'll never get out of my head."

That made Bea laugh so hard; she backed up to sit on the couch, "Oh my, I had forgotten." She looked up at me, "The first time your Mother saw a faerie, he was standing right there, holding her baby."

I looked at her in surprise, "You mean I saw him like this?"